15. He says to Moses, I’ll have mercy on whomever I choose to have mercy, and I’ll show compassion to whomever I choose to show compassion.
16. So then, it doesn’t depend on a person’s desire or effort. It depends entirely on God, who shows mercy.
17. Scripture says to Pharaoh, I have put you in this position for this very thing: so I can show my power in you and so that my name can be spread through the entire earth.
18. So then, God has mercy on whomever he wants to, but he makes resistant whomever he wants to.
19. So you are going to say to me, "Then why does he still blame people? Who has ever resisted his will?"
20. You are only a human being. Who do you think you are to talk back to God? Does the clay say to the potter, "Why did you make me like this?"
21. Doesn’t the potter have the power over the clay to make one pot for special purposes and another for garbage from the same lump of clay?
22. What if God very patiently puts up with pots made for wrath that were designed for destruction, because he wanted to show his wrath and to make his power known?